Girls as young as 15 being trafficked to Ireland and forced to have sex

Immigration body claims teens are being tricked into travelling and then repeatedly rapes

Girls as young as 15 are being trafficked into Ireland and forced to have sex, it has been claimed.

The Immigration Council of Ireland has revealed vulnerable youths from Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia are being forced to sell their bodies so that their pimps can line their pockets.

The issue of trafficking in Ireland was highlighted this week when gardai appealed to
people to help them identify a woman who had been found wandering and disoriented outside the GPO in Dublin on October 10.

Despite
it later emerging she was an Australia and not a girl brought to Ireland by a pimp, the issue of Ireland as a gateway country for such criminal activities was brought to the forefront.

A recent European Parliament report found 270,000 people a year are being trafficked within the EU for sexual exploitation, a proportion of whom land on our shores.

It’s estimated €250million of the €25billion which the crime lords pocket across the EU
from sex trafficking comes out of Ireland.

It’s also believed there are around 340 women in the country who work as sex slaves.

Last
month figures released by the Department of Justice showed 23 kids were
identified as being trafficked last year – six more than 2008.

The authorities launched 32 trafficking
investigations last year, compared to 53 in 2011, as well as the 97 ongoing probes.

In 2011, nine people were prosecuted for offences linked
to the illegal trade in humans.

Nusha
Yonkova, Anti-Trafficking co-ordinator with the Immigrant Council of Ireland, said the problem here is worse than imagined.

She
explained: “Human trafficking for sexual exploitation is the prevalent form of trafficking in Ireland. It constitutes for about 75% of all the cases here.

“The vast majority of victims that we have met were female.

“We have seen girls as young as 15 being brought to Ireland for sex trafficking.

“The most worrying thing is we have no exact figure for the number of women who are trafficked into Ireland.

“The sex industry here is big, roughly 1,000 women.

“You only have to look at escort websites to see the majority of women being advertised on them are foreign.

“It
is a huge business for pimps and it is estimated they make somewhere in
the region of €250 million from the Irish market.”

Council chief Denise
Charlton said the “GPO Girl” case has brought the trafficking issue back into focus.

She added: “The facts speak for themselves – 48 people identified as trafficking victims in 2012, most were sexually exploited and 23 were children.

“Government
has been examining this in terms of the overall review of the laws on prostitution and there have been almost 18 months of debate, 800 written
submissions, six months of hearings and unanimous recommendations from the Oireachtas Justice Committee.

“The time for real political action is now.

“The
Immigrant Council of Ireland has been involved in contacts with politicians from all sides, and is now committed to intensifying that engagement and will be seeking discussions with leaders of all parties in order to ensure urgent action is taken.”

Meanwhile,
Justine Reilly, co-founder of Space International (Survivors of Prostitution-Abuse Calling for Enlightenment) agreed Ireland has a huge
problem with sex trafficking.

The organisation raises awareness of the harm suffered by call girls.

Ms
Reilly, who managed to leave prostitution three years ago, said she has
seen the large volume of girls forced to travel here and work in brothels by violent pimps.

She
revealed: “I worked with a lot of African girls. I heard stories of how
they were promised a new life in Ireland not knowing what they were in for. They were told by their pimps their families back home would be tortured and killed if they tried to escape.

“The girls were making huge money for their pimps. They would often charge less in order to undercut the Irish girls.

“They also made the girls offer certain things Irish girls just weren’t willing to. They were treated like pieces of meat.

“You only have to look at the escort sites to see the majority of girls are foreign.

“There are a few doing it of their own free will but my guess is the majority are doing it under the pressure of a pimp.”